Hospital Rooms
by Just One
Summary: Many emotions are expressed inbetween the sterile white walls of Konoha's hospital, many words and thoughts of love, hate, life, death, desire, pain, sadness and joy. [Oneshot Collection, pairings so far: NejiTen, LeeSaku]
1. Waiting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto - Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei. I do own the plotline of this story.**

**Author's Note: I'm sure you've noticed by now that a lot of stuff happens around Konoha's hospital, and the most emotional moments (excluding battleground scenes and the death of the Third and Asuma) take place in rooms of the hospital. That's how my idea for these little tiny ficlets came to life... Anyhow, this first chapter deals with Tenten's feelings as she's desperately waiting for Neji to be allright after he has been retrieved from the forest. You know, in the end of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc? I hope you likey.**

**Read and Review, Onegai!**

**-xx- Nika-chan**

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White... White... White...

Tenten had never liked hospitals. Maybe it was a mental issue, maybe she needed to visit a psychatrist to deal with this problem, but Tenten knew one thing: She didn't like hospitals for three reasons.

She didn't like the colours. She couldn't get why everything was so white, a sterile type of white. It might have reminded some people of pureness, of light and soft silk sheets to sink back in, but it reminded her of the coldness her stoic teammate displayed in his eyes sometimes. It scared her.

She didn't like the smell, which reminded her of death and infections, of pain and hurting. The scent of hospitals reminded her of tetanus shots she'd gotten in the past, it reminded her of a battlefield scattered with disgarded limps, it reminded her of bloody bandages and first aid kits, and it reminded her of the time when she had recieved the scar that ran down her stomach, a thin white line contrasting with the rest of her tanned skin.

And she hated the cries coming from several rooms. She didn't like the sounds. Announcing death to come within a short time, a small shiver ran down her back at every horrific scream that passed her ears. You would think that she had gotten over the sounds of agonizing death a long time ago, it was her own choice to lead the bloody ninja life after all. But she couldn't stand these places eitherway.

Why? Because it was her teammate in there, her precious person, one of the few she would die for and one of the few she really loved. She was completely useless in a situation like this. She couldn't do anything.

She couldn't help him, she knew little to nothing about medical techniques and using her chakra for healing. She sticked with her trustworthy first-aid kit and her trustworthy bandage wrappings. That she could handle.

But by the faces of medic-nin rushing in and out of the operating room, with dirty hands and tired faces, she judged this wasn't something she could deal with that easily. It only upset her further. In an attempt to learn more about his condition, she'd tried to inform with one of the doctors or nurses. However, the looks on their faces said enough. They said too much, without words, but with frowns and sad eyes.

She couldn't be there for him. The operation being performed was restricted and only acknowledged medical workers were allowed inside the OR, she realised. She didn't even dare to ask, desperate or not, wanting to see him in whatever state or not. Tenten was also fully aware that even after surgery, she wouldn't be able to visit. It was a universal rule: Only relatives. She couldn't hold his limp hand in her warm ones as she sat beside him and waited for him to wake up, as she had done before when he overused Kaiten and passed out from the chakra loss. She couldn't watch over him and imagine he knew she was with him like she did sometimes at night when she could not sleep.

She couldn't even pray for him, because she knew Neji believed everything to be pre-decided. Her begging to Kami-sama woudn't make a differance, that's what he believed.

She could only wait.

Sitting still on the bench, checking every few minutes if his chakra signature was still there in the other room. From what she could feel, his was faint, but as long as it was there she would have something to hold on to. She would hold on.

She would wait.

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**Click on the pretty button, come on!**


	2. Trying

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto - Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei. I do own the plotline of this story.**

**Author's Note: Yay, I finally wrote some LeeSaku! It's not very good quality, at least it's worse than my other works. Hopefully you'll be nice and cope with me. Either way. Maybe Sakura has never really known how she felt about him? And maybe, just maybe, the both of them will never find out. But Kami-sama knows.**

**Read and Review, Onegai!**

**-xx- Nika-chan**

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Lee...

Unconciously swinging her legs, dragging the soles of her shoes across the floor, Sakura cast quick glances at the boy before her. The wooden stool she had seated herself upon wasn't very comfortable, but it had been the only stool in the room. Joining his unconcious body on the bed would have been to much of an embaressement, eventhough he wasn't awake, and so she concluded she would just have to put up with the hospital's poor seating possibilities.

Konoha's Green Beast was hardly ever so seriously ill he needed to be held over night for observation, and even if those times came around sometimes, once he had woken up from the anesthesiac a whole shift of nurses would be needed to hold him down and keep him from leaving. Though, things were usually relatively easier when she was around. Lee tended to listen to her better. She knew it had something to do with his obvious devotion of her. His adoration was hard to miss after all, due to the random exclamations of youthful feelings he threw at her when she least expected them. Not to mention the weekly bouquet of red roses on her doorstep every monday morning.

Sakura wasn't sure if she liked him as much as he liked her. For quite some time, Naruto had shown similar behavior towards her, ever since they joined together as Genins. She suspected she felt the same for Lee as she did for Naruto, whether he liked her or not: He was a friend. She adored his strength, though having a fair share of brutal force of her own, and his attitude never failed to bring a soft smile upon her facial features.

Mutual feelings or not, she still didn't like this situation. When she has clasped her tutor in the halls of the hospital, on her way to his room, to ask if he would be okay soon, the Godaime had only smiled a knowing smile. Sakura really didn't like that lopsided grin of her teacher. It ment the elder woman was aware of things she didn't even want to know herself, and it annoyed her. Though she could not deny, the wave of relief she had felt when Tsunade had told her he would wake up in the morning, had been tramendous.

Hesitantly, she extended a hand to brush away his hair and place her hand on his forehead, ignoring the cold sweat and taking his temperature. She smiled softly, not bothered by a few stray tears that slowly glided down her cheeks. He would be alright. Taking no risks of someone walking in on her as she was breaking down, she quickly stood up and after pressing a chaste kiss on his cheek, she made her way over to the door. Her hands on the handle, she pushed open the entrance to the hallway and heaved a sigh, looking back one more time before quickly pacing down the sterile white corridor to face her duties on the night shift.

She whiped her hand furiously across her cheek to clear away the tears and once again pull up her barrier. She hadn't been ninja long enough to be able to be inaffected by the entire ordeal at all. Instead, she pulled up the walls, built them brick by brick to protect herself until she could handle everything without the safe and sound protection that her own little corner provided. She was working on it. She would become a real ninja.

For him?

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**Click the pretty button, come on!**


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